Then you can listen to whatever you want.
Im all for paying for good content or service. But I quit paying for companies to abuse me.
Seems like a stretch, no? How are streaming music companies abusing users?
There are other warts though:
- They're paying out the lowest to artists by far when it comes to streams
- Artist impersonation issues
- Botted playlists
- Daniel Ek investing his fortune into AI drone military defense company Helsing
- The nascent issue of AI music / artists (see The Velvet Sundown)
For me it is moreso that all of this adds up to artists getting the squeeze, and I'd rather try to find ways to better support them.
- The entire SOTA ML algo is 'how to min(cost) while just avoiding churn' - not play what you actually want. Just don't annoy you enough that you quit
- This means serving endless covers of hit (real) songs that cost them pennies on the dollar given cover artists don't get custom negotiated deals
- This means producing their own drivel in key categories[1] to avoid royalty payments outright
- It is not a huge leap from producing drivel to producing genAI drivel if it satisfies the equation above
[1] - https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/spotify-is-creating-i...
AI slop music.
Reducing library.
Removing artists.
Its the standard enshittification playbook.
It’s a textbook Feature Factory [1].
I don’t think anybody asked for all the features they have crammed in, right up to the point where it’s playing videos like a wannabe YouTube client.
When I know my machine is going to need CPU resources and I don’t want to work with the sound of the fan, I load up a lightweight FLAC player instead.
[1] …a term that is apparently annoying to Agile enthusiasts… Good!
Spotify hasn't refused at all. They don't say anything, but a non-employee specifically links to a page where people can upvote the idea to help get it implemented.
Flagged because there is nothing of value for HN here, this is just a random feature request.
That's just how product forums work.
